Bill to ban two poisons used for widespread killing of
wildlife goes before Congress

Tell Congress to SUPPORT H.R. 4214 (Compound 1080 and
Sodium Cyanide Elimination Act). This has been reintroduced to the
House of Representatives after President Reagan revoked the previous ban in
1981 choosing the interests of the livestock industry, worth about $160
billion annually, over public safety and humane predator control.

After decimating populations of wolves, eagles, bears and black-footed
ferret in the lower 48 states, two of the most dangerous poisons known to
man - Compound 1080 and sodium cyanide – were banned in 1972 for killing
predators on federal lands.

The current bill, H.R. 4214, has been reintroduced to the House of
Representatives after President Reagan revoked the previous ban in 1981
choosing the interests of the livestock industry, worth about $160 billion
annually, over public safety and humane predator control.

Today, Wildlife Services, a division of the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture,
spends more than $100 million annually to kill about 1.7 million animals a
year, tens of thousands of which are poisoned by Compound 1080 and sodium
cyanide, as a subsidy to ranchers who claim predators and pests are
threatening their choice of livelihood.

While the livestock industry already gets handed hundreds of millions of
taxpayer dollars every year in subsidies, Wildlife Services has declared on
all-out war on native predators for the mere 5 percent of cattle deaths the
USDA’s own audits claim were caused by wildlife.

A 2008 article in Men’s Journal told the story of a man who accidentally
set off an M-44 – a small trap filled with sodium cyanide – who came close
to losing his life and now suffers lifelong health damage.

The article pointed to the deaths of USFW biologist Sam Pollack and his
dog from M-44 poisoning, as well as the unintended deaths of 1,184 domestic
cats and 512 dogs in 2006 alone, as evidence of the risks posed by littering
America’s wilderness with sodium cyanide.

Compound 1080 is one of the world’s deadliest poisons – a teaspoon can
reportedly kill up to 100 adults – of which there is no antidote. Deaths can
take up to seven hours to occur, during which time the animal who has
ingested the toxin suffers extreme and excruciating pain. Animals have even
been found to have vomited up their own lungs.

This poison is put into a rubber bladder and fixed around a sheep or goat
neck using a toxic collar. When the bladder is punctured the poison is
released into the unfortunate baited animal, the surrounding environment and
any scavenger that takes a bite out of it. Collateral damage is often high
and unreported.

The second poison the legislation seeks to ban wreaks the same amount of
havoc on intended predators as well as non-target species like fox, bear,
dear and eagle.

The M-44s are “spring-activated ejectors that deliver a deadly dose of
sodium cyanide when they are activated,” according to Predator Defense, a
predator advocacy group that had been working on reinstating the ban for
many years.

M-44s are primarily used to kill coyotes, but like all attractive bait
laced with poison, an entire ecosystem could be affected as one animal
consumes another, or the poison leaches into the water and soil.

Ranchers have predator control options beyond potentially inflicting
gruesome and painful deaths on wildlife, pets and people. Guard dogs, better
fencing, penning the animals at night and devices meant to frighten
predators all have been shown to protect livestock.

But because the improvements are not being handed to ranchers for free as
the taxpayer-sponsored widespread poisoning of wildlife is, they have no
interest in making a long-term investment to better protect their food
animals and in so doing be better stewards to the federal lands the
government allows them to graze their animals on for free.

One of the biggest concerns to critics of Wildlife Service’s
manufacturing, stockpiling and distribution of Compound 1080 is its risk of
being used by terrorists because of the excruciating pain it inflicts and
because no anecdote exists. The substance has been linked to Saddam
Hussein’s chemical laboratory, and has been identified by the FBI and U.S.
Air Force as potential bioterrorism agents.

This news is especially disturbing as an audit of Wildlife Service from
2001 to 2004 revealed it lost track of poisons and had no database keeping
tabs on its arsenal of potential biological weapons.

The Compound 1080 and Sodium Cyanide Elimination Act would prohibit the
use, production, sale, importation or exportation of Compound 1080 for any
purpose, and prohibit the use of sodium cyanide for predator control.

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